The Last Act Of Love: Run Free, Jasmine

This morning, Jasmine reached a level of suffering we could not allow any more. Not with the poor, uncertain prognosis.

We set her spirit free from the body that failed her.

We always fought through all her medical horrors before, because the prognosis was always hopeful. But not this time.

We couldn't let her suffer any more, with such little hope for improvement.

Her spirit was bright as ever and wanted to go places and do things. But she would take two steps and collapse, shaking. She wouldn't eat, her stomach was constantly upset, and this morning was not even able to squat to pee.

It wasn't getting better, it was getting worse.

Run free, Jasmine, unbound by your ailing body. We loved you SO much, but you knew that. Know that everything we ever did was out of love.

Your ashes, baby, will make it to your ranch, where you were the happiest, even though you could not.

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Pain, Reaction To Narcotics Or Something Else? Please Pray For Jasmine

After some minor improvement yesterday it looks that things are worse again. Jasmine is very miserable, her back end not working well at all.



Also her stomach was upset again. She wanted to go out (I thought she wanted to throw up) so I took her but she has such a hard time moving around ...

We ended up stuck outside in the freezing rain for 45 minutes before I managed to get her back into the house. 

I did my best trying to towel-support her, though I'm not sure whether that was actually helping or just confusing her and making things worse.

Called the vet and he thinks she might be reacting to all narcotics now.

He feels it's the pain meds doing this so we are to take her off to codeine and see if any improvement in 24 hours. I think there is a possibility it is that, since she go so messed up after the morphine shot. But could this be pain from how messed up she was? I don't know. Don't have any choice than taking her off the meds and see what happens.

My heart is bleeding for my girl.

At least she's back in the house again and I got her to rest again. After the horror half an hour ago, that's some victory. Ceneria tablet also seems to have settled her stomach, so hopefully that will hold for the time being.

I asked the vet whether he thinks we're just torturing her.

 It seems he doesn't feel we need to give up yet. But it is so painful to watch her like this!





Please pray for Jasmine.

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It Just Keeps Piling Up

While we returned to dealing with musculoskeletal issues, then teeth, which seem to be behind some of the latest problems, then recovery from long anesthesia ...

Had such a great time yesterday ... train wreck today. Again.

Jasmine's UTI is back with a vengeance and it's a Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus pseudintermedius.

I decided to run the urinalysis while she was in for the dental, because I felt things weren't quite right. Surely enough, they're not.

It took a week to get culture sensitivity so Jasmine spent a week on Amoxil for no good reason. Yesterday we took her to the farm and she had a great time. We returned home to the news of resistant infection.

The drug that is left of our list of options seems reasonably not completely horrible; however, in rare cases it can cause neurological side-effects, including paralysis. Good times ... We discussed it to death and decided that it is our best bet anyway.

It is making her stomach upset and after third dose she threw up.

So more meds for that since now, when we started on it, with our limited options, we are married to it if at all possible.

Meanwhile, as if all that wasn't enough fun, it looked like Jasmine's neck flared-up again..

Well, either that or already neuro side-effects?

Emergency trip to the vet--good news (as far as bad news go), it's neither the disc(s) or the drugs but rather extreme flare-up of muscle spasms and pain.

Morphine shot helped with the pain but rendered Jasmine a complete mess in other ways.

Since with some luck (not that she has much of that) this could all be fixed, we're still fighting.

But otherwise we feel that Jasmine is just about at her fill of suffering. Taking it one day at the time and we'll see how successful we can be getting things sorted out.

More consolidated info later. More detailed and frequent updates on my Facebook.

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Adoption Monday: Abe, Flat-Coated Retriever Mix: Deerfield, NH

Check out this lovely boy at Mary's Dogs Rescue & Adoption!

Abe is a fantastic dog! He has friendly retriever energy and is good with other dogs. 

While we do not know his history with cats in a home, he was content to ignore them at the shelter.

Abe is currently in a foster home where he is doing great. 

He is ready for his forever home. Are you ready to welcome him into yours?

Abe.is house trained, spayed and up-to-date with routine shots.

Want more info on Abe? Call Mary's Dogs: 603.370.7750 or send along an email: marysdogsrescue@gmail.com

Ready to bring Abe home? Tell us about yourself and your interest in Abe in the adoption questionnaire. Check out all the wonderful dogs on Mary's Dogs Facebook Fan Page.

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Mary’s Dogs rescues and re-homes dogs and puppies from Aiken County Animal Shelter, a high-kill shelter in South Carolina, USA. They also serve as a resource to communities in Southern New Hampshire and pet owners nationwide by providing education and information on responsible pet ownership, including the importance of spay/neuter, positive behavior training, and good nutrition.

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Primer On Cryptococcal Infection

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Dr. Becker is the resident proactive and integrative wellness veterinarian of HealthyPets.Mercola.com. 

You can learn holistic ways of preventing illness in your pets by subscribing to MercolaHealthyPets.com, an online resource for animal lovers. For more pet care tips, subscribe for FREE to Mercola Healthy Pet Newsletter.

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Human-Dog Problem Tree - PART FOUR

by Dino Dogan

Time for a review. Put on your spectacles, here we go.

While I have pulled my information from many sources -dog training, human evolution and neurosciences, dog and human psychology, Buddhism, and the list goes on- I should add that I am unaware of any books, DVDs, etc that have explored this subject from as many angles as I intend to.

I believe that both dog trainers and dog owners will find valuable information in these pages not found anywhere else.

I want to thank you for your attention, patience and criticism while I present my ideas and hope we all learn a lot in the process.

In part one; I've laid out the bird’s eye view of the thesis, which can be summarized in the following.

There has never been more information on human-dog relationships, usually expressed in the form of dog training books, DVDs, TV show, etc.

Conversely, the human-dog relationship has never been in worse shape. Why?

We will explore exactly that in these pages.

I have laid out the issues –as I see them- in a three branched problem tree.

First branch related to dog owners receiving partial information from dog professionals. This is not an accusation, but rather a study in the game of telephones.

Second branch related to the fact that our biology is ill-suited for modern life style. We will explore these issues in later articles.

The third branch of the problem tree is related to human nature, preconceived notions and sub-standard mind-set as dog-owners “enter” the training session. We will explore these issues in later articles.

In part two, we talked about the importance of spending actual time with your dog (companionship). Its one of 4 things that is crucial to dog trainers being successful at what they do. At the same time, its one piece of the puzzle missing from most dog/dog-owner relationships.

Why is this important?

I maintain that the extent of your (dog owner’s) success will depend directly on the extent to which a dog owner is able to replicate these invisible attributes possessed by dog trainers.

In Part three (we are still in the first branch of the problem tree) we talked about the issue of indoctrination. Having a firm belief in one “style” of dog training can be very detrimental to dog trainers. But more importantly, it can be detrimental to dogs and dog owners.

In part four we are taking some time to review, however in part five we will talk about “detachment”.

Dog professionals are detached from the process of dog training. This may sound like a bad thing or even an accusation, but as you will see, nothing could be farther from the truth.

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Dino Dogan is a blogger, writer, biker, dog trainer, singer/songwriter, Martial Artist. Dino is now busy with his DIY Blogger Net blog. He is also behind the great social media tool, Triberr. Hopefully one day he'll return to dog blogging. Meanwhile, you can connect with Dino on Twitter or Facebook.

Related articles:
Human-Dog Problem Tree - PART ONE
Human-Dog Problem Tree - PART TWO
Human-Dog Problem Tree - PART THREE

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Veterinary Highlights: Impact Of Diet On Olfactory Abilities

Dogs have an amazing sense of smell which makes them indispensable partners in saving lives.

Could diet affect their olfactory abilities?

According to the new study, conducted at Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine, indeed, it can. Diets higher in fat and lower in protein improve dogs' ability to smell.

Apparently it has to do with body temperature.

Lower protein, higher fat diet allows to lower body temperature after exercise faster, reducing panting and improving dogs' detection abilities.

This study also shows that dog's detection accuracy can be much higher than previously thought.

Full article:
More Fat, Less Protein Improves Canine Olfactory Abilities

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